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Synopsis

A decade ago, Hope Ann Greggory (Melissa Rauch) was America's sweetheart. Her inspired performance on a ruptured Achilles at the world's most prestigious gymnastics tournament clinched an unlikely bronze medal for the U.S. team and brought glory to her hometown of Amherst, Ohio. But in the years since that epic third place victory, Hope hasn't done a whole lot with her life. Still living in her dad Stan's (Gary Cole) basement, still sporting her daily uniform of a Team USA gym suit with teeny-bopper bangs, ponytail and scrunchie, she spends her days at the mall milking her minor celebrity for free food and favors.

Hope's routine is upended when she learns that she must coach Amherst's newest gymnastics prodigy Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson) in order to receive a sizeable financial inheritance. The hard-edged yet insecure Hope is faced with a serious dilemma: does she jeopardize her "hometown hero" status by devotedly training this rising star to achieve the dreams she never could? Or does she attempt to sabotage the impressionable Maggie to ensure that she remains the one and only star in Amherst?

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MELISSA RAUCH

Hope Ann Greggory • Co-Writer • Executive Producer

Making strides in the world of television and film, Melissa Rauch is blossoming in her roles as an actress and writer.

Rauch can currently be seen on the most-watched network comedy show THE BIG BANG THEORY as the hilarious Bernadette Rostenkowski. In 2013, Rauch was nominated for a Critics' Choice TV Award in the category of "Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" along with the nomination for "Favorite TV Gal Pals" at the People's Choice Awards. The show was nominated in 2011, 2013, and 2014 for a Golden Globe Award, was nominated for an Emmy Award from 2011-2015, and won the Critics' Choice Award for "Best Comedy Series" in 2013 and 2014. Rauch and the cast have also been nominated in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series" by the Screen Actors Guild from 2012-2015, and the cast won the People's Choice Award in the category of "Favorite Network TV Comedy" in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

In addition to THE BIG BANG THEORY, Rauch has starred in a number of television series including TRUE BLOOD, KATH & KIM, THE OFFICE, and 12 MILES OF BAD ROAD.

On the big screen, Rauch most recently co-wrote, along with her husband Winston Rauch, and starred in the comedy THE BRONZE, which opened the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Rauch plays a bitter former gymnastics bronze medalist who must fight for her local celebrity status when a new young athlete star rises in town. VARIETY's Ramin Setoodeh, wrote "[Rauch] delivers the best breakthrough comedic performance by an actress since Melissa McCarthy in BRIDESMAIDS." LA TIMES's Steven Zeitchik said, "It's Rauch who steals the show, morphing her lovable network-TV shrillness into something more unrecognizably dark." Sony Pictures Classics is set to release the film on March 18, 2016.

Rauch can soon be heard as the voice of Francine in the upcoming animated comedy ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE. COLLISION COURSE is set to be released in theaters July 22, 2016 and is the fifth installment in the popular cartoon franchise. Other voices joining her include Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, and Jennifer Lopez.

Rauch's past film credits include Bob Castrone's FLOCK OF DUDES (2015), William Savage's IN LIEU OF FLOWERS (2013), Matthew Weiner's ARE YOU HERE (2013), John Hamburg's I LOVE YOU MAN (2009), and Tom DiCillo's DELIRIOUS (2006).

Rauch started her career as a standup comedienne and became a fixture on the fan favorite vh1 show BEST WEEK EVER. She later starred and co-wrote her own one-woman show, THE MISS EDUCATION OF JENNA BUSH, where she played the former President George Bush's daughter. Her sold out production garnered her a win in the category of "Outstanding Solo Show" at the New York International Fringe Festival as well as the "Theater Mania's Audience Favorite Award" and was an official selection of HBO's US Comedy Arts Festival.

Rauch currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her husband.

GARY COLE

Stan

Gary Cole can currently be seen on HBO's Emmy winning comedy "Veep" opposite Julia Louis- Dreyfus, and he has received an Emmy nomination for his work. He recently completed work in the Blumhouse feature "The Town that Dreaded Sundown" and appeared in the New Line feature "Tammy" opposite Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, and Allison Janney.

Best known for his film roles in classic cult comedies such as "Office Space," "Pineapple Express," "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," and "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," Cole is a veteran of both the screen and the stage. As an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theater Company, Cole's theater credits include "August: Osage County," "Collected Works of Billy the Kid," "Speed the Plow," "American Buffalo," "Flyovers," and "Balm in Gilead." Additional film credits include: "American Pastime," "The Ring 2," "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!," "I Spy," "One Hour Photo," "A Simple Plan," "The Brady Bunch Movie" and Clint Eastwood's "In the Line of Fire." Television credits include: "Midnight Caller," "The West Wing," "Arrested Development," "Desperate Housewives," "Chuck," "The Cleaner," "Entourage," "The Good Wife," "True Blood," "Suits," and "Hart of Dixie."

THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH

Ben

Thomas Middleditch can currently be seen as Richard Hendrix, the central character in Mike Judge's Emmy nominated series on HBO, "Silicon Valley." In addition to "The Bronze," Middleditch will be seen in the upcoming "The Final Girls," directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson. He will also soon be heard as one of the lead voices in the DreamWorks animated feature, "Captain Underpants," along with Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, and Kevin Hart to be directed by Rob Letterman.

Middleditch has been featured on "The Office," playing the role of Dwight Schrute's brother, and also played Fuzzy in the Paramount Pictures feature, "Fun Size." Other film work includes Martin Scorcese's "The Wolf of Wall Street," "The Campaign," "The Brass Teapot," "The Kings of Summer," "The Other Guys," "Being Flynn," and "Splinterheads." He is a regular performer at UCB, a member of The Improvised Shakespeare Company, and creates and performs comedy shorts with College Humor.

Like many funny people before him, Middleditch came to the U.S. from Canada (British Columbia) but first he made a stop in Chicago and toured with The Second City before moving to New York City. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his two dogs, Meatloaf and Potter.

SEBASTIAN STAN

Lance

On the heels of wrapping "The Bronze," Sebastian Stan has been cast in two major films helmed by iconic directors. Stan will play NASA scientist Dr. Chris Beck in Ridley Scott's "The Martian" co-starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, based on the pioneering e-book by Andy Weir. Stan was also cast as Joshua, the estranged son to Meryl Streep's rocker mom in Jonathan Demme's "Ricki and the Flash." Written by Diablo Cody, the film also co-stars Kevin Kline and Rick Springfield. Stan will then reprise his role as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in his third appearance in the Captain America franchise in "Captain America: Civil War."
Other film credits include Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan," Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," and "Hot Tub Time Machine" with John Cusack. On television, Stan is well-known for his recurring role as Carter Baizen on the hit series "Gossip Girl." He also starred opposite Sigourney Weaver in USA Network's "Political Animals" and in the NBC drama "Kings" alongside Ian McShane. Stan appeared in the first season of ABC's hit series "Once Upon a Time" as fan-favorite, "The Mad Hatter".

CECILY STRONG

Janice

In 2014, Cecily Strong returned to "Saturday Night Live" for her third season. Strong earned rave reviews for her "Weekend Update" character "The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation with at a Party," which Rolling Stone hailed as an "instant classic." Her recurring character of a ditzy porn star-turned-aspiring-pitchwoman that she plays alongside Vanessa Bayer has already become an audience favorite. Strong has also co-hosted "Weekend Update" alongside both Seth Meyers and Colin Jost.

In Chicago, Strong improvised regularly at iO and served as an understudy for the Second City Main Stage and E.T.C. shows. She performed as a member of the Second City national touring company and has also appeared at the Chicago SketchFest, Chicago Just for Laughs, the New York Sketch Fest and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Strong can be seen in upcoming films "Staten Island Summer," and also voices several characters in "The Awesomes," the Hulu original series created by Seth Meyers. Strong was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and has a BFA in theater from the California Institute of the Arts.

HALEY LU RICHARDSON

Maggie

Haley Lu Richardson has always been one for passion and dreams, but when she moved to Los Angeles at 16 she quickly realized that the only "trick" to success is hard work. Her first test of hard work was dancing on the Microsoft X-box Kinect float in the 2012 Rose Bowl Parade. She was quick to land her first lead roles in TV movies "Christmas Twister" and "Escape from Polygamy." Next she transformed into bleached-blonde Tess for a season of "Pretty Little Liars" spinoff "Ravenswood." With the blonde do, Haley Lu also appeared on MTV's "Awkward" as "queen of the sophomore sluts," and a similar role in TBS's up coming series "Your Family or Mine." In 2014, Richardson travelled to national and international film festivals for her two movies "The Well" and "The Young Kieslowski."

BRYAN BUCKLEY

Director • Executive Producer

Oscar Nominated Director Bryan Buckley has been dubbed the "King of the Super Bowl" by the New York Times. Directing over 50 commercials for the big game since 2000. Many pieces of Buckley's work have been inducted into the Museum Of Modern Art's permanent collection and he is an esteemed recipient of the DGA award, Emmy's and over 50 Cannes Lions. A 2010 Adweek Readers Poll named Buckley the Commercial Director of the decade and he was also chosen as one of the 50 best Creative Minds in the last 25 years by Creativity Magazine.

Buckley's directing career started in 1994 when he directed the Emmy Award winning "This is SportsCenter" Campaign. In 1997, Buckley co-found Hungryman along with "This is SportsCenter" creator, Hank Perlman. By 2004, the company won the Cannes Festival's Palme D'or as the top commercial production company in the world and has finished in the top ten for more than ten consecutive years, the first production company to do so.

Buckley wrote and directed the short film "Asad." The film was shot in Africa with an all Somali, refugee cast and screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide, taking top honors at the TriBeCa Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival, to name a few. In 2013, Buckley was nominated for an Academy Award for "Asad."

WINSTON RAUCH

Co-writer • Executive Producer

Winston first collaborated with his writing partner and wife, Melissa Rauch, to create "The Miss Education of Jenna Bush" which won "Outstanding Solo Show" and "The Audience Favorite Award" in the New York International Fringe Festival. The show enjoyed extended runs at the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, as well as The Coronet Theater in Los Angeles. Rauch was also the co-writer and executive producer of The Condom Killer, a film-noir comedic short, an official selection of the 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and The Friar's Club Comedy Film Festival. Rauch has a number of projects currently in development for film and television and currently resides in Los Angeles.

STEPHANIE LANGHOFF

Producer

Stephanie Langhoff is producing partners with the filmmaking team of Jay and Mark Duplass. Together they have worked on the brothers' films "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," and "The Do- Deca-Pentathlon," as well as Craig Johnson's "The Skeleton Twins" and Colin Trevorrow's "Safety Not Guaranteed." The team's first television series, "Togetherness," was written and directed by the brothers and recently premiered on HBO. Before joining Duplass Brother Productions, Langhoff was an executive at Revolution Studios in New York where she started as an assistant. Prior to her career in film, Langhoff worked as an investment banker after graduating from the University of Virginia.s

MARK and JAY DUPLASS

Executive Producers

After a series of micro-budget Sundance shorts in 2003 and 2004, brothers JAY AND MARK DUPLASS - who write, direct, produce and act - premiered their first feature "The Puffy Chair" at Sundance in 2005. "The Puffy Chair" was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, won the Emerging Vision Award at the SXSW Film Festival, and was jointly distributed by Roadside Attractions and Netflix.

The brothers' second feature "Baghead" played at the 2008 Sundance and Tribeca film festivals, and was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics in July of the same year. In 2010, Fox Searchlight released their Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly dramedy "Cyrus" to the highest per screen average of any film that year. "Cyrus," which garnered rave reviews, was followed by the acclaimed 2012 Paramount Vantage release of "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," which starred Jason Segel, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon, and premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Also in 2012, Mark and Jay re-teamed with Fox Searchlight on the release of the comedy "The Do-Deca- Pentathlon."

Most recently, the Duplass Brothers produced, wrote and directed the HBO series "Togetherness," which premiered to critical acclaim in January 2015.

Jay and Mark have also produced several acclaimed and award-winning films through their Duplass Brothers Productions banner. Among the highlights are Colin Trevorrow's award- winning "Safety Not Guaranteed" (Sundance 2012), Charlie McDowell's "The One I Love" (Sundance 2014), Craig Johnson's "The Skeleton Twins" (Sundance 2014), Ross Katz' "Adult Beginners" (Toronto 2014), and the upcoming films CREEP (SXSW 2014).

Mark and Jay are also known for their work in front of the camera as actors. Mark has appeared in a number of award-winning studio and independent films and the FX comedy show "The League." Both brothers can be seen in regular recurring roles on Fox's "The Mindy Project." Jay is also a regular in the Golden Globe-winning Amazon original series "Transparent."

SCOTT HENRIKSEN

Director of Photography

Obsessed with cameras and images from a young age, Scott Henriksen was raised in Southern California and spent his formative years watching 70's TV and photographing skateboard culture and action sports. Graduating in Ô92 from Art Center College of Design's photography dept. led to work as Director of Photography shooting groundbreaking music videos for Weezer "Buddy Holly" and Wax "California" for director Spike Jonze, Metallica and Depeche Mode videos for Anton Corbijn and Sugar Ray and Smashmouth for McG plus many others. Music videos led into a wide and varied commercial career and a long tenure with Bryan Buckley shooting influential and innovative commercials including many super bowl spots like monster.com "When I Grow Up" in 1998. This collaboration continues into narrative work like Asad, which was nominated for an Oscar and The Bronze, premiering in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Henriksen lives in Hollywood CA.

JAY NELSON

Editor

Jay Nelson is an award-winning editor and director from Los Angeles known for his work on many international commercials, films and videos. Jay is also the Executive Producer, Writer and Editor for the documentary "Wild In The Streets," and editor of the film "Holy Wars." Originally from Ohio, Nelson moved to Los Angeles and began his career as a writer and director for the C.A.G. theater company, which soon blossomed into creative work on music videos, television and film. He moved to Hawi, Hawaii with his family in 2007 and continues to work around the world in film and TV, while also devoting his resources to causes such as Partnership for Drug Free America and Heal the Bay. A founding editor at Cut + Run editorial in LA, he divides his time between offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin.

DAVID SKINNER

Production Designer

David Skinner is a Los Angeles-based commercial production designer. His work can be seen in numerous advertisements currently on air in addition to Super Bowl spots in years past. He began his career in New York, starting as a carpenter and working his way up to production designer solely through on-the-job training. With no formal education background in design, a sense of reality is prevalent in David's work.
David's first narrative work can be seen in the Academy Award-nominated short film "Asad" (2013). With a beautiful touch, he sensitively created a war-torn Somalia in a small South African tourist town, bringing director Bryan Buckley's story to a human place in an inhuman world.

MICHELLE MARTINI

Costume Designer

Michelle Martini is a costume designer for both films and commercials. She is now based in Los Angeles, after beginning her career in design and film in New York City.

After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Film Animation, Michelle moved to New York City to work alongside Oscar nominated costume designer April Ferry. She designed her first independent film "Nobody Know's Anything" at the age of 23 working with comedians like Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho and Mike Meyers. After years of working in features she made a foray into the world of advertising and began an epic journey of non-stop Super Bowl spots with commercial director Bryan Buckley.

Michelle is accomplished in creating costumes from idea and concept; taking them into the construction process and all the way to the camera's eye. She has worked directly with many reputable directors in the film and commercial industry including Spike Lee, Barry Sonnenfeld, Bryan Buckley, Todd Field, Tim Robbins, Jonathan Demme, Ted Demme and more.

After a decade of living on both coasts Michelle finally calls Los Angeles home. She lives in Venice with her 5 year old son, Milo.

In 2012 Michelle was nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award for a Target campaign in which she designed and constructed the costumes. The campaign was directed by Wayne McClammy.